Garmin

inea

I have just finished my first half marathon and am planning to do a full marathon in the autumn - thinking about getting a garmin watch to help with the training (especially pace, log, records) - has anyone any recommendations? I am leaning towards the Garmin FR60 as it seems to meet my needs - is there much to gain from upgrading to the 405 with GPS etc?

Krusty_Clown

From what I can see (warning *personal opinion*), most people who buy the FR50 or FR60 usually upgrade to a GPS-based watch within a year. So perhaps you should hold off, save your money and invest in a 305/405 type watch a little further down the road.

Alternatively, Garmin recently announced some new entry level GPS watches, that probably won't support the full set of functionality of some of their bigger brothers, but should be slightly cheaper (and with a newer GPS chipset, should aquire satellite signal even quicker than the current models). No pricing announced yet (I think). Will probably take a month or two before reviews etc are available.

Press release.

Product page.

gerard65

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

From what I can see (warning *personal opinion*), most people who buy the FR50 or FR60 usually upgrade to a GPS-based watch within a year. So perhaps you should hold off, save your money and invest in a 305/405 type watch a little further down the road.

Alternatively, Garmin recently announced some new entry level GPS watches, that probably won't support the full set of functionality of some of their bigger brothers, but should be slightly cheaper (and with a newer GPS chipset, should aquire satellite signal even quicker than the current models). No pricing announced yet (I think). Will probably take a month or two before reviews etc are available.

Press release.

Product page.

Read on a blog (can't find the link atm) that the forerunner 110 went on sale for $250 in the states. Seems a bit steep.
OP, check amazon for the 205/305, they a had them at a fairly good price a few weeks ago. And only my opinion, don't go for the 405.

Krusty_Clown

They all start out very much over-priced, but rarely retail for the MRP. Worth mentioning, it really doesn't pay to be an early adopter (beta tester) with the Garmin units anyway. Wait 4 months.

By the way, they say in the blurb that the watch supports a HRM on ANT+ only (no other ANT+ accessories). It also doesn't mention an ANT+ USB stick in the packaging. So while it does support Garmin Connect, I'm not sure how you're supposed to upload activities to the website. Perhaps they just want to charge you separately for an ANT+ USB dongle. I bought my ANT+ USB dongle on eBay for €10. Much cheaper than buying direct.

Mullaghteelin

gerard65 wrote: »

OP, check amazon for the 205/305, they a had them at a fairly good price a few weeks ago. And only my opinion, don't go for the 405.

I ordered a 305 for £150 sterling from Amazon a few weeks back, with the free delivery option, and it arrived 60 hours later.
It arrived the morning after St. Patrick's Day, so who knows, it may have come even faster had it been a normal week!

BigAl81

My 2 cents:

Got the Garmain 305 a few weeks ago (from Amazon UK). I love it! I have all the stats I want on one screen, and its very customisable.

There is a personal trainer mode where there are 2 stick men on the screen, the top one is you, and the bottom guy is a pace setter (ie: 10km in 45mins or whatever). You can then glance at the watch and see if your behind the pace, and speed up if needs be, really cool... if your into that kind of thing!

Also, you can export your runs to Google Earth which is pretty cool!

Go Team!

Ps: Saw on Bargain Alerts Harvey Norman were selling em off cheap, mite be worth a call to your local store!

8ofSpades

you can also get an app for the iphone which I have started using recently.
Depending on how much your monthly spend is you can (or could anyway) get one for free once yousigned to an 18 month contract.
The app is called imapmyrun.
Just another option for you, plus you always have the phone/mp3 player in the event you stop running.

joconnell

I'm using runkeeper on the iphone 3g and I've found that it has a lot of problems keeping track of gps in areas with trees such as griffith avenue - I'm not sure if this is the app, my phone or iphone 3gs in general. The app itself is nice when it works though!

toomuchdetail

inea wrote: »

I have just finished my first half marathon and am planning to do a full marathon in the autumn - thinking about getting a garmin watch to help with the training (especially pace, log, records) - has anyone any recommendations? I am leaning towards the Garmin FR60 as it seems to meet my needs - is there much to gain from upgrading to the 405 with GPS etc?

Definately look to GPS - the like to the virtual partner where you can set your pace and match it to a ...virtual partner is invalueable , to me anyway .
Also been able to track you pace at 1km or 1m intervals again is important for me as I need to know that I can spread a 5min KM over a set distance instead of blowing it all in the fist 1/3 of a race or finishing a race with too much in the tank as I didn't go hard enough.
Downloading the runs onto the PC will give you hours of endless pleasure !!
I have both the 305 and 405 and much prefer the 305 as the bezel on the 405 is very sensitive but the 405 looks better and is less bulky.

toomuchdetail

joconnell wrote: »

I'm using runkeeper on the iphone 3g and I've found that it has a lot of problems keeping track of gps in areas with trees such as griffith avenue - I'm not sure if this is the app, my phone or iphone 3gs in general. The app itself is nice when it works though!

Dont have an Iphone but have found from exp twice! that carrying a phone while running can lead to the phone been knackered due to moisture damage from sweat !!! I now carry mine in a small bag.
Might be worth thinking about.

inea

Thanks for the useful replies. The virtual partner is a feature I am very keen on and the fr60 offers this (but not the gps) whichis why I thought it might be a good (and reasonably priced) bet.
Harvey Norman are offering some good deals but I missed their half price offer last weekend

Dr.Sanchez

Nothing wrong with the 405!... I'v been using it for a while now. You can change the sensitivity of the bezel and also lock it to avoid accidentally touching it.

Most people say its hard to use while running... WHY would you want to be fiddling with your HR monitor while running? Mine is set to auto scroll through three pages of info so theres no need to touch the watch untill the end of my run!

Downside: Bezel is non-responsive when wet!